


grand confusion of the world

by VagabondDawn



Category: Dreaming of Sunshine - Silver Queen
Genre: Educational Reform Arc, Gen, Missing Scene, Silver Queen's Dreaming of Sunshine Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 23:43:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18537886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VagabondDawn/pseuds/VagabondDawn
Summary: Kurenai takes a moment to talk to Shikako and gets some good news.





	grand confusion of the world

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MageKing17](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageKing17/gifts).



> Request by MageKing17
> 
> Nara Shikako & Yuuhi Kurenai  
> Yuuhi Shinku & No One  
> WB: Educational Reform
> 
> Combining all three tags to write a fic about Shikako & Kurenai laughing at Shinku in the wake of educational reform will earn triple bonus points.

  
"Congratulations on your promotion, Shikako-chan," Kurenai says, idly helping herself to the coffee and tea bar that Anko has arranged for the Kunoichi Club rooms. It has a better selection than the Jounin Relief Station _and_ better company. Fewer suspicious stains on the floor, too. Win/win/win, really.  
  
"Oh, thank you, Kurenai-sensei," the Nara says looking up from her work. Even after finishing her jounin project she still seems to be swamped every time Kurenai sees her, which is rarely.  
  
Kurenai tries not to be jealous — she's busy enough herself these days, busier than she'd like — but her own promotion to jounin had only been three years ago and she'd certainly never been in as high demand as Shikako Nara seems to be.  
  
Not until this new war anyway. Masking entire sections of forest in camouflage and redirection genjutsu is a skill only a few in Konoha have these days and Tsunade is riding them hard. It’s gratifying to be respected, but Kurenai is relieved to be back in Konoha for her rest period. 

"No need to be so formal," she says with a curving smile. "We're the same rank, aren't we?"  
  
Shikako makes a face. "That's... so weird, Kurenai-sensei. I only just got used to being a special jounin."  
  
"I know that feeling," Kurenai muses. It's much less present when she hangs out with all these students who acknowledge her as senpai and sensei — and even in Konoha at large, Anko has fallen happily in the role of Raw Green Rookie Jounin these days. But for the longest time Kurenai always felt like she was _new_ and far behind. Even though neither Asuma or Kakashi had taken genin teams before, they’d been so much more confident about it than she had been.  
  
"Yeah, probably," Shikako says. "Its just weird thinking about the people I outrank now.” There’s some kind of flicker to her expression — as though the change isn’t necessarily positive in all ways — but it’s forced away with an attempt at levity: “When I made special jounin I outranked _my mom_."  
  
She sounds horrified. Kurenai doesn’t know Yoshino Nara well, only second hand stories from Asuma who has little to do with his students home lives. Well, beyond occasionally threatening to tell their parents when they're being brats, which is a tactic Kurenai occasionally considered using on Kiba — but she’s never been certain enough that Tsume would _disapprove_.  
  
"Well, there's rank and there's _rank_ ," Kurenai says, sipping her drink. It could definitely use more alcohol but its not bad for tea. She’ll have to ask Anko where she ordered it from. "Somehow I don't think 'but I'm a jounin now' flies over dinner."  
  
Shikako laughs. "Absolutely not." She spins her pen around her fingers, an absent show of dexterity. "What was your jounin project, Kurenai-sensei?" 

"Nothing half as impressive as yours," Kurenai deflects smoothly. She's never been _quite_ sure that her project was enough — she had scraped and fought and worked for years with no progress or recognition and then been suddenly handed everything on a plate with no explanation. As a reward for sealing away Yakumo’s power? Because the Uchiha were gone and genjutsu was a dying art? Because Asuma had returned and the Third has remembered she existed? 

It’s a bitter thought and a question that’s never going to be answered. Whatever it was, she’s a jounin _now_ and worthy of the rank.  
  
"You must have been successful to get promoted, but how did it go?" Kurenai continues.  
  
Shikako brightens. "Tsunade-sama was pretty happy with it all. Thanks for pointing me towards Ebisu-sensei — he was really happy to help us and got to work on his own jounin project at the same time. That ended up being a bigger deal than ours, I think.” 

She doesn’t sound even the least bit put out, like Ebisu is welcome to the limelight.  
  
"I _had_ heard he'd been promoted," Kurenai prompts. Mostly from Anko, who had been voluntold to help him train. 

Then again, it might really have been voluntary. Anko had spent months training with Maito Gai — mostly willingly — for her own promotion. She was sadistic enough to want to pass that suffering on.  
  
"Yeah, he made jounin," Shikako says. "And Tsunade-sama appointed him as head of the Educational Reform Committee so he gets to keep doing... that sort of stuff. He already has a lot of plans for the Genin Corps."  
  
"Well, I hope he has more luck getting changes through now," Kurenai says, and does genuinely hope that. She has no real personal investment in the Genin Corps herself, but Ebisu has shown that simple discouragement won’t make him give up. "He's been trying for a long time."  
  
"Oh, he will," Shikako says, almost absently. "Tsunade-sama put him _in charge_. They don't have a choice but to listen." 

“Of all the Corps training?” Kurenai asks, surprised. Her father is going to _hate_ that. She might even have to go and talk to him to find out _just how much_.  
  
"Of _all_ the training," Shikako corrects. "Your dad wasn't very happy about it, apparently, but Tsunade-sama wasn't very happy with _him_ either." She dusts her hands off, as though finishing an intense job and admiring her work.  
  
Kurenai throws back her head and laughs. 

**Author's Note:**

> you will have to learn them  
> In order to become one of the grown-ups  
> Who sees invisible things neither steadily nor whole,  
> But keeps gravely the grand confusion of the world  
> Under his hat, which is where it belongs,  
> And teaches small children to do this in their turn  
> — To David, About His Education By Howard Nemerov


End file.
